Only six players at the club last
night. I suspect virus concerns will limit attendance.

Atkinson won his matches against Richard Neal. Frank won his against Charles and Killinger and Holland split matches.

Mar 9, 2020

We had fewer players than average last night.
We suspect virus fears. But we had enough for good
matches.

Wolfgang
took on Will Atkinson. His last victory (or draw) against
Will
was Oct 2018. Alas, it still is Oct 2018

Bill Mendenhall played Cliff and from the sounds of the
play, Bill won.

Pat Holland and Charles Murter exchanged games as ususal.

Bob
arranged to play Van Wooley and went 2-0. In the first match
Van
had a pawn advantage but missed a tactic and dropped a rook. In the
second game, Bob hid his queen on the far side of the board and Van
took what looked like an unprotected pawn. His knight shortly
after that left the board. And Van's white squared bishop
remained trapped the whole game.

Mar 2,
2020

It was a very interesting night at the club! Read on for
details.

Bill
Trucksee wone his first match! He won against Bruce.
And
after I had coached Bruce! Something tells me I shouldn't be
a
coach! :D

But, then Bruce goes and plays Will Atkinson and gets a
draw! So perhaps I should be a coach!

Bill Mendenhall had a tough night, losing a hou+ match
against Bob and then losing late in the evening against Wolfgang.

Bob's victory over Bill moved Bob up to 8th place over
Van Woolley.

Charles Murter continues to improve, with a strong upward
trend since last September.

Tom
Distillio dropped about 70 points on his return but has come back
strong in the past few weeks, fully recovering those points. And having
a good time while doing so!

Feb 24th
Matches

We had a fairly active night! Players at every
table!

Tom
Distillo had a good night! I heard him say at one point
saying
words like "I'm not certain what is going to happen, but I'm going to
do it...". And then he proceed to checkmate Frank Jackson
about
10 or so moves later. Tom won three and lost only one game,
gaining 12 points for the night.

Bob Flanagan and Will Atkinson
had their ususal battle! Both player's exchanged down to a
pawn
end game which ended in a stalemate after 50+ moves.

Atkinson's
earlier game with Bill Mendenhall resulted in a massive king side
attack by Will that ovewhelmed Mendenhall. There were lots of
pieces still on the board.

Richard Neal had a tough day against Wolfgang,
losing two and drawing one. Wolf is always a tough opponent.

Charles Murter has been on a hot streak since last
September! Go to the ladder page and look at his graph!

Feb 17th
Matches

About half of the regulars were at the club. The other
half, well, one was in warm Miami!

Cliff
returned after being gone for a few weeks. Unfortunately the rest from
chess did not improve his chess! Cliff lost all three matches
and
dropped 57 points.

Brian Hellings, an old club member, returned and had a
good night, winning 3, lossing one and drawing one.

Bruce is improving his game, having gone
from 1250 to now close to 1350 in just a few months

Feb 10th
Matches

Fewer
matches and players than last week. The rain I'm certain was
a big factor.

Tom
Distilio continues to play good, going two wins, a loss and draw and
gaining 22 points.

Few few
surprises in the night's matches.

Feb 3rd
Matches

Another full page of matches, with two on the back side!

Wolfgang had a mixed day, winning some and losing some.
Overall, his rating changed by only -4.

Van Woolley's rating slid a little, but I suspect his
game improved as he was playing against very strong players.

Jan 27th
Matches

To
say we had a lot of matches is an understatement. We had to
use
the back side of the recording form to get all the matches written down!

Richard
Neal returned after three months! And he did it in style,
winning
5 out of 8 matches and gaining 33 points. Welcome back!

Rumor has it he has a grudge match scheduled against Bob
for next week.
Richard hopes to avenge his loss in the A tournament to Bob.

Tom Diostilio looked very relaxed but perhaps too much,
going 3 out of 9. He's in range of Bill Mendenhall.

Van Woolley slipped down below Bill Mendenhall as he took
losses to Bob and Will Atkinson.

Pat Holland had a good day with wins over Rich Henry and
Charles Murter. He gained 93 points.

Van Woolley came close to beating Will
Atkinson. And Richard Neal may have had a draw in hand but
went for the win.

Jan 20th
Matches

Another
fun evening at the chess club. We welcomed Mike, a new member!

Bob
and Wolfgang had a two hour match. They decided to call it a
draw
after all that. The game went back and forth. At the end, Wolfgand had
one more pawn but only 18 seconds.

Van
Wooley has moved into #6. Rest assured Bob Flanagan and Bill
Mendenhall will be arguing over who gets to play him next Monday!

Bill
Mendenhall and Will Atkinson had a long battle. Will won it
when
Bill missed a back take by a knight. I think next time Bill
will
kill Willl's knights early :)

Charles
Jay reached his highest rating in almost two years with a victory over
Bill Mendenhall. Not certain if my review of one of Charles'
matches help.

There
were two matches still being played when I left for the night.
I'll get the results next week and add to the ladder.

Jan 13th Matches

Most
of the regulars were at the club. But we did miss Van and Cliff.

Tom
was last one in the door and had to wait awhile for a match.
When
he got them, he played well. I suspect his many 10 minute
internet games is helping his play.

Wolfgang
lost to Will Atkinson. Will played the English and Wolf still
hasn't figured out how to play it. Nor have others....

Bob
came close to a draw with Will Atkinson. Will played the
queen's
indian. Bob knew it and traded down all the pieces with both having an
equal number of pawns and a minor piece. Unfortunately, it was a
classic case of making a fast move that cost Bob either the
draw
or the victory....

The
last match of the night was between Charles Jay and Bruce Bucari.
Jay had a defenseless king in his sights with a bishop, rook,
and
queen just two moves from checkmate. Unfortunately, Bruce was
one
move faster on the checkmate.

Jan 6th Matches

We
had a good showing and lots of matches! Tom is back! And he
hasn't lost any of his skills. He split games with Frank Jackson

Van
Woolley continues to play very strong. He won 6 matches,
including one against Tom!

I
missed the meeting myself. I had to pick up a car I was
buying.
I'll be back next week and have more commentary :).

Dec 30th Matches

Lots
of matches! We had a good turn out even thougth it was Dec
30th

Bill
Mendenhall got revenge for his defeat by Bob last week!

Bruce
Bucari was on a rampage, winning 6 out of 8 matches with two of them
victories over Wolfgang. Bruce is at his highest rating since
December 2018!

Van
Woolley gave Will Atkinson a heck of a battle. In the end
game,
both had three pawns and Will had a rook and Van two knights.
Somehow Will won.

Dec 23rd Matches

Bob
Flanagan and Will Atkinson had a good match. But one weak
move about 20 moves in proved Bob's downfall....

Bob
took revenge for his loss by playing Bill Mendenhall. The
computer said that Bob was ahead on every move, which had to be
frustrating for Bill.

Earlier,
Bill and Charles had played and called it a draw. Bill had a slightly
stronger position, connected rooks on a file, but was in time trouble.

The
last match of the evening was Wolfgang against Greg Nolan.
Wolf
got down the exchange and Greg was able to chase Wolf's king out to the
center of the board.

Dec 16th Matches

There
were a fair number of players at the club, even though a number of the
regulars were not there. Lots of matches.

Bill
Mendenhall seemed to have less time trouble but problems with weak
moves were hard to overcome

Van
Wooley played very good, going 2-1 over Bob

Pat
Holland had a good day, going up 65 points with lots of wins

Dec 2nd Matches

Attendance
was a little low last night, which made for quite chess :)

Juat
a reminder: No chess Dec 9th as that is our annual club
Banquet at the Ichiban Seafood Buffet

Bob
Flanagan and Will Atkinson had an hour and a half long battle.
According to the computer, Bob was even or slightly ahead
throughout the match, but never enough to force a win. With three
connected pawns apeice and each with just a rook, they called it a draw.

Bill
Mendenhall continues to have trouble with his least liked opponent, the
clock :(. Bill was up thee or four pawns but down a minor piece.
It turned into a difficult thinking battle and with a clock
setting of 30 minutes, time won - for his opponent.

Bruce's
chess has improved. He's up 100 points from a month or two
ago. Now if we can just slow down his play.....

Bill
Penjuke has also gone up 100+ points since September!

Nov 25th Matches

Even
though it was Thanksgiving week, there were a fair number of matches

Charles
Murter had a good day, winning 3 matches and going up 46
points

Frank
and Wolfgang split matches. I suspect both were good games to
watch

Bruce
had a rough day. Looks like Bob needs to do more training!

Nov 18th Matches

We
had a fair number of players and matches.

Bob
and Wolfgang played a two hour match that ended in a draw. Bob had a
slightly stronger position, but the game would have ended up with king
versus king and pawn and Wolf would have most likely been able to stop
the queening.

Bill
Mendenhall went 0-4. Not certain why. He did play
Atkinson
twice and Jackson twice, so did not lose that many points.

Van
Woolley had an interesting night, with a mix of wins and losses and
gaining points, with the win over Wolfgang giving him lots of points.

Bob
gave Bruce a chess lesson. Seriously, a lesson :), Bob went
over
Bruce's responses to various openings and helped Bruce understand how
to make better moves. We'll see how good Bob is as a teacher
and
Bruce is as a student next week!

Bill
Killenger and Bill Penjuke both went 2-0 against Rich Henry.
Rich's graph of his performance is like a yo-yo. I
suspect
next week he'll be concentrating to improve his rating.

Bill
Killinger won 4 and lost 1 reaching an all time high in his rating!
I suspect he will break 1500 next meeting. His
graph of
performance is a steadily increasing graph. If we project
forward, in 15 years, he will be a grand master!

Nov 11th Matches

We'll
call this the night of the upsets!

Bill
Mendenhall squared off against Bruce Bucari. Unknown to Bill,
Bruce has been on a tear! His rating has greatly improved
over
the past few weeks. And Bruce had a secret weapon, the clock!
Bill and Bruce agreed to a 30 minute match. Bruce
is used
to playing fast and Bill is not. The results were
predictable!
Bruce won! So, if you play Bill, I suspect he will
now
request a 60 minute game!

Bob
and Wolfgang played their first match since the tournament. Wolfgang
won the tournament match. Bob however caught Wolf with the
same
tactic twice, gaining two pawns. Anyone wishing to learn this
tactic against Wolf, just see Bob for a quick free leason :D.
Bob
ended up grinding Wolf down and Wolf ran out of time.

Bill
Mendenhall, in hopes of getting his points back from his loss to Bruce,
took on Will Atkinson. The clock again worked against Bill.
Bill at one time could have drawn the match but went for a
win.
But he lost control of the center, and Will took full advantage of this
for a win. Even though Bill lost and was upset (emotionally
:DD), he has gained 69 points in the past three months. Way to go!

The
last upset of the night was Charles Jay who won against Frank. I didn't
see the match and both left before I could find out how the match went.
So let's ask next week when they show up.

Cliff
was upset with Wolf for seeing all the moves in the two games they
played. Next time, we're going to have Wolf play blindfolded.

Pat
Holland and Bill Penjuke must have been playing speed chess.
Pat
won four games and Bill one. I wonder how much time ran off
their
clocks, if any :D.

Van
Woolley couldn't make the meeting. He injured his thumb and has an
infection in it. Lots of pain and meds to fight both the
infection and pain. So, he decided it was best to wait a week.

Nov 4th Matches

Not
much change in the ratings of the top 10 players. Bill
Mendenhall
had the biggest change, gaining 8 points with his win over
Van.

Pat
Holland and Bruce must have been reading chess books, as Pat gained 63
pints and Bruce 53!

Cliff and
Rich had a bad day!

Bob and
Wolfgang both tried to beat Will Atkinson. Bob lasted longer
:D

Oct 28th Matches

Van
Wooley returned! Work had kept him away. He had a
rough
night, losing two games to Cliff and one to Rich Henry. I
think
he has a few games left to play in the B tournament.

Bob
and Frank played two. The first was a classic French defense. Both new
the first 20 moves.... Then it ended up in an even pawn end
game,
so they called it a draw and went to the next. This one Frank
won
after Bob forgot to proctect a pawn.

Bill
Mendenhall and Will Atkinson must have had a heck of a battle. Bill was
exhausted afterwards! The game ended in a draw.
Bill
continues to move up in the ladder rating.

Bill
Penjuke had a great day with 3 wins, a draw, and a loss. All were
against higher rated playes, so Bill gained 53 points.

Oct 21st Matches

Bad
weather reduced attendance, but hopefully next Monday will be better.

The
A tournament is done. Will Atkinson won. Not certain who got
2nd.
I think Frank but not 100% positive as Bill Mendenhall won his match
against Frank. Frank missed a check by a rook that let Bill
have
a discovered attack on a rook. And Bill was able to complete the
victory without time trouble.

Wolfgang
won against Bob by playing the King's Indian Defense. That
defense is going to be ruled illegal one day!

Hopefully
Van will be back Monday and can complete his B tournament games so that
the B tournament can be wrapped up.

Oct 14th Matches

Bruce
and Pat went at each other, with Pat winning 3, Bruce 2, and 2 draws!
After all that their ratings didn't change :D!

Frank
and Will Atkinson played, and Frank got his king, bishop and rook
trapped with no good squares to move to without losing a pawn. Will on
the other hand could advance his pawns and king and controlled the
center. The net result was a win for Will.

Bob
Flanagan and Richard Neal had an interesting match. The match
went back and forth until Bob was able to fork Richard's rooks with a
pawn. A rook up was all it took to win.

To view the above game, click
on Neal
vs Flanagan Oct 14.
Scroll down to the mini-chessboards to see a move by move
analysis.
The mini-boards show alternate moves and the pawns up for
White and
Black. This was generated by www.chesspractice.com

The match
between Mendenhall and Wolfgang went back
and forth until move 49 when Bill sacked his knight for a pawn to
prevent Wolfgang from having two connected past pawns. But
Wolfgang had a bishop, rook and a passed pawn and Bill just a
rook.......

To view the above game, click on Mendenhall vs Wolfgang Oct 14.
Scroll down to the mini-chessboards to see a move by move
analysis. The mini-boards show alternate moves and the pawns
up
for White and Black. This was generated by www.chesspractice.com

Oct 7th Matches

The
tournaments continue!

Wolfgang
and Will Atkinson had a battle that was even until Wolf moved
the
wrong pawn. This allowed Will to drive pawns down the center with
obvious results!

Richard
Neal and Bill Mendenhall had a battle. Near the end, Richard
appeared to have it won, but didn't take what appeared to be a free
rook. It's possible that Bill could have stalemated with repeated
checks, but I didn't see it. Richard must have, or missed the rook
take. At the end of the game, Bill was down to about thirty
seconds and up a queen but Richard had a pawn on the 6th rank.
After about a dozen moves with Bill not finding a way to win,
they agreed on a draw.

I didn't
see any of the B tournament matches. Next time I'll spend
time watching them.

I
compared the matches in the ladder to Bruce's results and found about a
half dozen from the tournament that were not recorded. I've
included in the ladder.

Both Will
Atkinson and Bruce Bucari have sent updates on the A and B tournaments.
I've posted those on the club news page.

Sept 30th Matches

Van
Wooley was back and in force! He played many of his B
tournament
matches, going 8-0! This netted him 40 points on
the ladder
and put him tied with Bob for 10th place.

No
surprises in the A tournament. Wolfgang and Frank did draw,
but they are close in ratings, and draws do happen.

Charles
Murter lost more than he won, going to his lowest ladder ranking since
January 2018

Bill
Penjuke stepped up his game with five wins against closely rated
opponents. And he won against Cliff who is much higher. This
jumped him to 19th place with the resultng 78 point gain.

Sept 23rd Matches

A
lot of of B tournament matches were played. I'm not certain who is
ahead :). I'll ask Bruce and update when I hear back.

No
upsets in the A tournament. Most of the matches were over
quickly. However, the Flanagan-Mendenhall match lasted 4 hours +, with
Bill finally winning

Wolfgang
is recovering from his summer golf play and has gained ladder
points the past two weeks after being beat up on when he returned :D.

Joe Brank
has jumped 150 points in the past month! Way to go Joe

Charles
Jay must be studying a new book! He has jumped 100 points in
a month and a half

Cliff's
game is slipping, as his rating is nearing an all time low. I'm certain
we'll hear about it.

Bill
Mendenhall needs only 12 more points to reach his all time high on the
ladder. He's been on an upward run since July.

Charles
Murter has dropped from his all time high of 1534 back in
early
June to 1397. We'll ask Charles to lend him the book he is
reading.

And
Richard
Neal has gone in the opposite direction, approaching his
1750!
He split games with Frank, which helped his ranking.

Sept 16th Matches

All
the matches were slooow matches as both the A and B tournament is going
on. No major upsets.

Sept 2nd Matches

A
lot of players who hadn't been to the club in several weeks showed up.
And a lot of players who had been showing up took the holiday off!
Welcome back wWolfgang, Cliff, Van, and others

Bob
took the holiday off so Bill Mendenhall's victories, which included a
victory over Wolfgang, took him 28 points above Bob in their
battle on the ladder.

Cliff
came back from several weeks off. Normally when he comes
back, he
wins. Unfortunately, his concentration must have not
vacationed
enough. He lost two and drew one.

Charles
Murter has been on a downward slide since he hit hs all time high of
1534. He's down to 1380. Sounds like his preferred
opponents have figured out how to play him!

August 25th Matches

Bruce
set a new milestone! He played himeself and won. Twice :D.
The entry for White was "Bruce" and the entry for Black was
"Bruce Bucari" Good try!!!

Bruce and Pat Holland
are competing for the most games played. They are averaging 5
games a night. Bruce has the lead since we started the new
ladder
two years ago. He has played 521 games. Pat has played 490.
No
one else is close.

Richard Neal must have read a good chess
book! He won five matches! Two against Frank.
Overall, Richard went up 48 points and took 7th place away
from
Tom Distillo

Charles Jay has been on a upward rating run for
the past few weeks. He's gained over a 100 points since
August
5th. Jackie has been going in the opposite direction.

Bill
Mendenhall and Bob Flanagan played two games and each won one. Going in
Bob was a point behind Bill. Because Bob was the underdog.
:D,
The rating system made his win over Bill worth more than
Bill's
win over Bob. Bob now has retaken 9th place from Bill with
1593.0
points. Bill has 1592.7!

August 19th Matches

Bill
Mendenhall managed to jump ahead of Bob, by one point! As I
left
early due to exhaustion (after playing in a a daze against Tom and
losing), I didn't see any of the highlights or lowlights of the
evening's matches.

We did have Tony Durkin show backup and he drew Will
Atkinson, which means it was a tough played game for both.

Pat Holland had a good day, going up 94 points and to #18
on the ladder.

Quite
a few of our regulars were not there. Most likely due to end of summary
nice weather and vacations. With September rolling around attendance
should increase back to normal.

August 12th Matches

Don
Forest returned after almost a six month absence. Don plays on
Thursdays at West Chester. He lost against Richard but had
strong
wins against Clift and Joe. Welcome back Don!

Lots
of players at the club and lots of matches! All the tables
were
full. And Jackie brought food as always. Thanks Jackie!

Tom
Distillo has a phenomenal night! 8 wins, no losses. In one
game
Richard Neal gifted Tom his queen. What looked like a perfect
queen move by Richard was almost perfect. Until the unseen bishop took
the queen!

Bob and
Van split matches. In the first match, Bob's knights forked
the
queen and a took twice :D. In the second match, Van played
very
aggressively and very carefully and easily won.

Bob
and Bill Mendenhall then played. Bob checkmated Bill with 25
seconds left on his clock. Bill had 1 second left the last 10-15 moves
so it was a super speed ending. The game was even for 40+
moves
until Bob got the advantage with a bishop versus a knight and a king in
the center vs a king in the corner.

Bruce,
Bill Penjuke and Charles Jay all had good nights, going up 50-60 points
each.

Pat
Holland set a record I think. He dropped 181 points!!!!
Bill Penjuke, Bruce, and Charles Murter all had multiple
victories. I suspect Pat will have revenge next week.

August 5th Matches

Lots
of players at the club and lots of matches!

Jackie
Brown had a great day, winning three matches against higher rated
opponents and gaining 74 points!

The
battle between Bob, Bill M, and Van continues! Bob jumped
form
10th to 8th with two powerful games against Van. Then Shannon took two
games off of Van. So Van dropped 38 points. Bill had a good
night, gaining 17 points, primarily from a draw with Will Atkinson..
It could have been a victory but few know how to do a
bishop-knight checkmate. Bob's victories over Van gave him
enough
points, 26, to jump ahead of both players.

Frank had
a good day with three wins over Neal and one over Bob

July 29th Matches

Lots
of matches! We ran out of room on the front page and had to
fill
in half the back. And then results were emailed to me on matches that
were not recorded.

I
got a note from Shannon Miles that he had to complete a tournament
match at Franklin Mills so missed this Monday. But he expects to be
attending regularly in August.

I'm
not certain how it happened but Bill Killinger got a draw against Will
Atkinson. Will then won victories over VAn Woolley and Jackie
Brown.

Bruce had
a
fun day but had two losses to Bill Mendenhall, two to Pat
Holland, and two to Humaan Said. Bruce and Joe Brank are now
tied
and we look forward to what happens when they play each other next week.

Humaan
Said continues to move up the ladder. He beat Bob and Bob was
mad
as he missed three moves, one of which would likely have won and one
that would have drew the game. SLOW play is the key!!!

Pat
Holland has a record for one of the biggest gains of the year, 118
points! Six victories and a draw!

Bill
Mendenhall and Bob Flanagan had a hour and half battle.
However
Bill was on the defensive most of the game, and when Bill went for what
looked like a free pawn (I think frustration had sat in), it turned out
to be a trap that ended up with Bill lossing a minor piece..
Both
have three wins, two draws and three losses! And are just 5
points apart.

Richard
Neal, after some tough losses at USCF quads last weekend decided to
take revenge on Tom, winning both matches. And this to Tom,
who
had just lost two matches against Frank Jackson.

Cliff,
after realizing that Bob could see all the moves (and lost to Bob),
when on to buit Jackie twice and Charles Murter twice, gaining 31
points.

July 22nd Matches

Not
as many matches as last week. Several players, who typically play
faster than average matches were vacationing.

Bill
Mendenhall has lots of people gunning for him! Humaan Said
won
his match against Bill, ending up with more sevaral more pawns than
Bill had.with the obvious results. Penjuke and Bob drew
against
Bill. Bill lost 40 points.....

Bill
almost checkmated Bob in their match. But in the end game,
Bob
ran to where all the remain pieces were in hopes of getting a
stalemate. And Bill, thinking he had a free knight, pinned it against
Bob's King. Unfortunately, that mean that Bob couldn't move
and
the game was a stale mate.

Bob
and Will Atkinson had a two hour battle, with Will ending up with just
one more pawn.... Next time Bob is going to ask for one of Will's pawns
to even things out.

Wolfgang
was rained out of golf so was able to attend. Hopefully we
will have rain next Monday...

I
saw only a little of Wolfgang's games against Neal. To say
they
got into some unusual attacks and lost pieces easily is an
understatment.

July 15th Matches

We
had 39 matches reported, and I know several others most likely were
played and not recorded. It was a very busy chess club
meeting!

Shannon Miles had a good day with 4 wins and no losses!

Wolfgang hasn't won a game since May. Well over
a month :((((. :D

Richard lost two games to Frank and then turned around
and won two games!

Charles Murter gained 74 points.

There
is almost a four way tye for 12th pace with Charels Murter, Cliff
Koehler, Bill Killinger, and Rich Henry all within a few points of each
other and constantly switching places. :).

Pat
Holland, Bill Penjuke, Humaan Said, Bruce Bucari, Jacki Brown and
Charles Jay are all within 30 points of each other! One
wonders
when one will find a way to leap ahead. It will
happen!

July 8th Matches

Lots of matches and four new people came to the club!

Van Wooley had a great night,
going 6 for 1. He had some spectactular checkmates,

Van Wooley, Bill Mendenhall and
Bob Flanagan are fighting for 8th place. But it looks like Van is
pulling away.

Will Atkinson and Bob Flanagan
had a great match. But Will won it in the end game with a brilliant
rook sacrifice.

Bill Mendenhall had a good day with some wins and loses,
gaining 18 points.

July 1st Matches

I
forgot to mention but last week Greg Nolan showed up. He's 2100+. He
and Will
Atkinson
played a match that ended in a draw. Greg is our new #1
player.

Not as many matches this week.
Several players are playing in the big tournament up in Philly.

Bill
Mendenhall's game was off and on! Unfortunately, more off
than
on. Bill lost twice to Van Wooley. In the first game, Bill
was
playing White and Van managed to force Bill's pieces to stay near the
king while Van's pieces got to eat up pawns. In the second
game,
they took turns being ahead until Van got such a commanding lead, that
even though he messed up and had to sack a rook for a queening pawn, he
still won.

Van also had good games against
other players. Net result is van jumped up two places to 8th.
Bill dropped to 10th.

Will Atkinson and Shannon Miles
had a long match, wth Will winning in the end when Shannon missed a move

Bob Flanagan and Bill
Mendenhall went at it but Bob won the middle game, going up two pieces
with Bill then having no play.

Cliff
and Richard Neal exchanged victories. It was a quiet match.
Cliff then went on to split games with Charles Jay.

Jackie pulled an upset with a
draw against Shannon, who is 800 points highter

June 17th Matches

Sorry I wasn't able to make the
club Monday. Our house refinishing project is keeping me busy
- Bob.

Van
Wooley definitely has Richard Neal's number! Anyone wanting
to
beat Richard needs to get a less fron from Van :D. Richard
and
Van split matches Monday. Van's victories over Richard has
definitely boasted his rating!

Shannon
made it back to the club after being away for over a month.
He
and Will Atkinson played a long match with Shannon winning. I
suspect that Bill Mendenhall wore Will out as they played earlier.

I
just noticed that Jackie may be turning her game around, gaining over
100 points in the past few weeks. Bruce is moving in the
opposite
direction!

If Rich Henry plays good next
week, he will likely be at an all time personal high since over a year
ago!

Pat Holland is playing good!
He reached his highest level since May 2018!!!

Cliff has been losing more than
winning, and has dropped under 1400.

The big surprise is Bill
Mendenhall. He's gained over 150 points in the past month and
a half!

June 10th Matches

There were lots of players at the club and lots of matches

We
had a new member, Joshua Cook from Oxford show up. A bit of a
drive, but hopefully he will make it every now and then.

The biggest upset was Van Wooley beating Richard Neal not
once but twice! Van gained 53 points from these
victories.

Bob and Bill Mendenhall had a long battle, almost two
hours. Bill accidently checkmated Bob :D

Bill also played Cliff and Cliff once again affirmed that
he can't beat Bill. :)

June 3rd Matches

Bob almost drew Will Atkinson in a hard fought game.
But accidently put a bishop on the wrong square in the end
game.....

Bill Mendenhall had a hard fought match will Will that
began about 9:30 and wasn't over until 11. And it was a draw.

Cliff had trouble with Bill Mendenhall, losing two in a
row. Cliff's been on a downhill run for awhile.

Richard
Neal and Frank Jackson played three matches. I saw part of
the last match and Richard had a good chance to win when
Frank
thought he could win with a rook sacrifice. It didn't work
and
Frank had to work for a draw.

May 27 Matches

Lots of matches!

Bill Killinger had a good day, moving up to 14th place
with a gain of 29 points.

Wolfgang
was at the club again even though it is golf season! He went
head
to head with Bill Mendenhall and won both matches.

Richard Neal was back after
being out for a few weeks. He played Wolfgang and drew, and played Will
Atkinson, and lost.

May 20 Matches

Bob
and Will Atkinson when head to head for over two hours. The
game
ended in a draw with each having three pawns facing each other backed
by their kings.

Jackie ended up losing all her
matches, but the pizza she brought in was a winner!

Van
Wooley and Bill Mendenhall played two games with Bill winning both.
In the last game, Van had six pawns to three but was down the
exchange. Van almost got a pawn to become a queen but Bill
was
able to stop the threat and win.

Bill is at his all time rating
high, 1614, with a steady run up for the past two months.

Cliff
ran into trouble with Pat Holland winning both games they played. Cliff
is at his lowest rating in over a year. Pat's rating has been
going up fo rhte past month, and if he plays well next week, he will be
at his highest rating in over a year.

May 13 Matches

We had a fair number of matches
on Monday.

Cliff
had a bad day, which we all most likely heard. He lost two
matches to Bob and two to Tom. Cliff was expecting Bob and
Tom to
miss opportunities and neither missed one.

Charles Jay had a good night,
going up 4 in ranking, to #16. He gained 62 points.

Pat Holland jumped from 18 to
14 and gained 92 points with six victories.

Bill Penjuk, Jackie and Bruce
were the the ones victimized by Pat and Charle

May 6 Matches

Not as many matches as last
week. A number of regulars were not at the club. I suspect
the nice weather was a factor!

Bill
Mendenhall and Bob Flanagan had a two and half hour battle.
Bill
kept trying to checkmate Bob and finally succeed with less than a
minute leff on his clock.

Bill then decided to play Will
Atkinson. And that ended up in a 78 move match!

Bill
Penjuke lost his focus in matches against Bruce Bucari. Bill dropped 42
points and Bruce gained 53 from the victories! Way to go
Bruce!

Charles
Murter seems to be recovering from his losses in March. He's
gained backed close to 100 points but still has a 100 go to get to his
all time high.

April 29 Matches

Many, many matches - over 40!

Shannon Miles and Will Atkinson
played and Shannon won. I suspect there will be a lot of tough matches
between these two.

Bill Penjuke went 5 out of 7
and gained 42 points.

Wolfgang dropped matches to
both Cliff Koehler and Richard Neal. This dropped him 31
points!

Bill Mendenhall had a good day,
going 4-0 and gaining 43 points to move into 9th place

Bob and Van traded matches.
I suspect this will happen again!

Cliff, after losing two matches
to the unbeatable (per Cliff) Bill Mendenhall, turned around and beat
Wolfgang!

April 22 Matches

One big upset, if I read the ladder results: Jackie beat
Frank! But I do want to confirm.

Wolfgang
continues his climb to the top! He has consistently improved
since his return from golfing. We all should take a golfing
break!

Richard
Neal and Shannon Miles must have had a good time. Each won a
game
and then there was a draw. Richard gained 18 points as a
result.

Bill Penjuke and Pat Holland
continue to trade points each week. This was Bill's week to get the
points!

April 15 Matches

Lots of matches. And play continued until after 11PM!

Shannon has a strong lock on 3rd place, with
wins over everyone he played Monday

Wolfgang has a good day, with a win and draw against
Frank.

Frank and Bob had bad days! Not as bad as
Charles Murter's day. Enough said......

Cliff had a victory over Frank, helping him jump 58
points.

April 8 Matches

Not as many matches as last week, but a lot of long
matches, which means more thinking!

We
welcomed Eric Kurtz last night! Eric is USCF 2070 and
recently
graduated from U of D and worked for awhile in Canada. He's back in
Delaware now.

Eric played Will Atkinson. He could
have drawn the first game but took a chance and went for a win. Will
found the move that gave him the win instead.

Shannon Miles had a good day, gaining 13 points with
several victories.

Charles Murter is now just above Bill Mendenhall now.It
looks like these two need to go head to head again. Charles leads 2-0.

April 1 Matches

The ladder has been updated.
Lots of matches: 27 in total!

Bob had a bad day, finding ways
to take winning positions in two games into losing positions!
Greed will do that :)

Charles Murter continues to
gain points, up 19 this week.

Van Wooley made up for a bad
day a few weeks ago, gaining 27 this week!

March 25 Matches

The ladder has been updated along with the what if resuls
(showing how you would do if you win or lose against another player)

Like
last week, lots of matches played at the club, but only a few were
ladder matches. Most were blitz matches as the club is running a blitz
tournament.

Will
Atkinson had a tough match he won against Richard Neal. Will
then
played Tom Distillo and Tom won. Not certain if Richard
deserves
pat credit!!!! I'll let Richard and Tom decide :).

Paul Shields returned after a four month absense due to
his work schedule.

Paul was a bit rusty, splitting
matches with Bruce Bucari and Bill Mendenhall

Will Atkinson is almost back to
his pre Richard Neal level, having won all his matches since then.

Wolfgang is at an all time
personal high of 1760

Tom
Distillo is back up to 1656 but it looks like it has been a battle with
a combination of wins and losses since his return after Christmas work
at his store kept him away.

Frank has run into a rough
start of the year, dropping down to 1852

Cliff
took off about a month and half back around December. Since
then,
he has been sliding and is at his lowest ranking since May of last year.

Bill
Mendenhall's rating crashed back in mid January, down to about 1475,
but he has fought his way back to around 1525 since then.

Charles Murter hit a low of
1350 back in November but is almost back to 1500!

March 18 Matches

Only
a few ladder matches. However, there were many matches played
at
the club as this was the second week of the blitz tournament.

March 11 Matches

The ladder has been
updated.

Only a few matches this week. Most of the
members played in a blitz tournament at the club and we don't count
blitz matches in ladder standings.

March 4th Matches

The
ladder has been updated. 40 matches! Lots of players at the
club,
John Jacob is our newest member! Welcome John!

Wolfgang continues his rise to
the top, with a victory over Frank Jackson.

Charles Murter had a good day,
moving up to 14th and gaining 41 points with two victories over Cliff
and two over Pat Holland.

Feb 25th Matches

There were 36 matches for the
day!

We
are missing several matches: I think Will had a match still
going
at the end of night. And Frank's matches against new member Shannon
Miler were not recorded. We'll update once they become available.

Richard Neal handled Bob
easily! Bob gave up a center pawn in both games and that is
all it took

Wolfgang dropped 13 points.
Among his matches was a loss to Cliff, that cost Wolf 19
points and gave Cliff 28 points

Pat Holland had a good
night, gaining 46 points

Bruce
got beaten up bad by several players,and dropped a bigh 106 points. Two
ways to stop the loss next time: win or play slower and play
fewer matches :D.

Late
update: Frank played new member Shannon Miler and lost two
games
to him. Based on Frank's input (and lost of two games), we've
adjusted Shannon's starting rating to 1800. Frank and Shannon
are
within a few points of each other.

Super late update (Mar3):
Richard Neal's late match win over Bill Mendenhall was
reported and added.

Feb 18th Matches

It
looks like Wolfgang and Tom Distillo went at it strong, with Wolf
winning both matches. Wolfgang has a 7 to 5 edge over Tom

Bill Mendenhall is still
searching for a win against Will Atkinson, to join the group of three
who have been Will!

Bill Penjuke went 0 for 4
against different opponents. It must have been the water....

Feb 11th Matches

There were quite a few matches
and some interesting upsets!

Frank
and Wolfgang played two games and split victories. This
netted
Wolfgang 12 points (-7 for the loss, but +19 for the win)

Bill
Mendenhall was upset by Pat Holland. Pat lost the first game
but
drew Bill in the second. And Bill was up three pawns! I think
Bill got in the trap of playing fast. Bill knew he was going
to
lose points with the draw as he was higher rated.

Bob
and Wolfgang finally paired off against each other after Wolfgang's
victory in the club tournament. Wolfgang decided to take
ownership of the A file and the H file with pawns to a3 and h3.
So, Bob decided to take control of the center and push pawns
down
the D and E files. Wolfgang finally tipped his king when Bob threatened
to queen one of three pawns on the 7th rank.

Richard
Neal arrived late, around 10PM. Richard's opponent for the
evening was Will Atkinson. Richard was highly motivated to
win,
as Bob's
victory over
Wolfgang was going to put Bob ahead in the rankings. Richard pulled off
the upset with a victory over Will and retained his lead over Bob.

Charles Murter played two games
and left, but both were victories over Pat Holland, gaining him 34
points.

Bruce gained points with a
victory over Bill Penjuke.

Tom
Distillo had a nice night with two victories over Bill Mendenhall and a
victory over Don Forest. What I saw of the match with Don was
it
was a hard fought match with a lot of careful strategic moves by both
sides.

Feb 4th Matches

The
big winner of the night was Bill Mendenhall. He gained 37 points, most
from a victory over Bob. At one point in the game there were four
queens on the board!

Wolfgang lost a few points
against Will Atkinson but gained them back with victories over Bruce.
Net change Zero!!! :D

Pat Holland had another good
night, gaining 27 more points, moving up to 15th.

Jan 28 Matches

Lots of matches at the club: 35!

Wolfgang
continues to gain points, up 27, with two victories over
Richard Neal. Details are sketchy, but it looked
like Richard went for a victory in one game but lost a piece and the
game.

Going into next week, Tom Distillo and Richard Neal are
just 8 points apart. Let's see if we can encourage them to do battle.

Bill Mendenhall had a rough night, dropping 77 points and
going from 8th place to 10th place.

Pat
Holland seemed to have the magic touch winning far more than he lost,
with victories over Bill Mendenhall, Jackie, Bruce, and Bill Penjuke.
Pat went up 150 points and from 20th place to 17th.

Jan 21, 2019 Matches

Sorry for the late update on the chess ladder. I had
forgotten to do the update

Biggest upset was Pat Holland had a victory over Bill
Mendenhall.

Another big upset was Bruce winning four (yep 4!) matches
over Pat Holland

Frank gave Wolfgang no quarter
in two matches. I'm certain Wolfgang will be after revenge
against someone!

Charles Murter had several
victories and moved up 43 points!

Jan 15, 2019

The chess ladder has been
updated for Monday's games.

There were a lot of players at
the club! No Monday night football and no college
championship help :).

Kevin
Moss, a 1500+ player, has returned! He joined back in the summer but
his work schedule changed so he couldn't come back. His
schedule
has changed and he's back! Expect tough matches against him.

Pat
Holland and Bruce Bucari beat up on each other, with each winning 3.5
games. I suspect we can just take the clock away from them as
they are playing so fast they don't need it :D. Because Bruce
was
lower rated, he gained points.

Bruce
gained the most points (37) because of his split in games with Pat and
with two draws against Bill Killinger, who is about 200 points higher
than Bruce.

Tom
and Bob swapped places on the ladder. Bob is now #7 and Tom #8.
Bob drew against Frank and won against Kevin Moss, gaining 22
points. Tom split matches against Van and lost to Will Atkinson. Net
loss was 10. Bob is now 11 points above Tom.

Bill Mendenhall had a good
night, with +19 points. He's chasing Bob and is #9 on the ladder.

Wolfgang
gained back some points against Frank (who beat up on him last week).
He did so by Bob drawing Frank (resulting in Frank dropping 5 points),
and Wolfgang have several victories, gaining 8 points.

Jan 9, 2019

The
chess ladder has been updated for Monday's games. We had a
fair
number of games played even though a few players were missing
(Alabama-Clemson game effect?)

Bob
Flanagan and Will Atkinson played to a draw after 27 moves.
It
was a classic queen pawn declined with few weak moves by either player.

Frank was on his game, taking
two from Wolfgang.

Jackie won several games
against higher rated players. Looks like a few weeks off
improved her game.

Jan 4, 2019

The chess ladder has been
updated for the matches on Jan 2

The upset of the evening was
Wolfgang's victory over Frank. Frank then took revenge and won the 2nd
game.

Bob
Flanagan and Bill Mendenhall had a one our battle that ended in a
draw. However, they swapped positions (Bob to 9, Bill to 10)
after Bill lost a later match to Charles Jay

Bruce had a rough night,
dropping 76 points

Pat Holland was on his game,
and went up 85 points with several victories over Bill Penjuke and
Bruce.

Jan 2, 2019

The chess ladder has been
updated for the matches on Dec 26

Dec 20, 2018

The chess ladder has been
updated for the Dec 17th matches

We have a new ladder member:
Drew Fleming, rated 1800. He gave Will Atkinson a tough game.

Richard Neal and Bob Flanagan
took on Wolfgang. Wolfgang drew each and got a win against
Richard.

Charles Jay had a great night,
winning all has matches!

Dec 7, 2018

The chess ladder has been updated for the Dec 3rd matches

Due
to the Eagles playing Monday night, a number of players stayed home,
and all left early to watch the game, so not as many matches as usual!

Wolfgang continues to move up
on the ladder! He split matches with Frank and went up 15
points.

Bill Mendenhall has a firm lock
on 10th with a draw against Will Atkinson.

I just noticed that Bruce has
jumped 129 points in the past three months! Wow!

Nov 29, 2018

The chess ladder has been
updated for the Nov 26th matches.

Bob and Van did a three game
match with Bob taking all three.

Bill Mendenhal and Cliff had
two matches and Bill got victories in both.

Pat Holland won four of his
five games, jumping 68 points! This moved him from 21st on
the ladder to 16!

Charles
Murter has been having a tough two months. He's dropped from 1467 to
1253, over 100 points! His high was 1510, so we need a big
comeback!

Bill Killenger jumped from 17th
to 14th place!

Nov 25, 2018 - The chess
ladder has been updated for Nov 19th matches

Sorry for the delay - Thanksgiving....

Only a few matches, as it was Thanksgiving week.

The
big match of the evening was the final A tournament match between Frank
Jackson and Richard Neal. The match could have gone to a
draw,
but Richard saw a possible checkmate and went for it. Unfortunately,
Frank was able to block the attack and queen his passed pawn.

There
were no major upsets. Wolfgang appears to have finally
learned
how to beat Bruce, with Wolfgang getting two victories.

Nov 14, 2018:
The chess ladder has been updated for Nov 12th matches

We
had a fair number of matches. Some games seemed to go real
quickly. When you play, longer clock settings with a longer
delay, like 30 minutes and 10 seconds or 45 minutes 10 seconds will
allow you much more think time and improve your chess. I see
many
games being lost because players are not studying the board to see what
their opponent did, and what they will do.

Bob played Will
Atkinson in a 2 1/2 hour battle that ended in a draw.
Both players had chances for a win.

Wolfgang
finally figured out how to win against Bruce! Unfortunately,
it
looks like Paul Shields has Wolfgang's number now :).

Rich
Henry had a really bad day :(. He lost all six of his
matches,
dropping 130 points and down four in the ratings. Hmmmm. Longer clock
times next time?

Bill
Mendenhall is back from his back surgery. Bill
Killinger took advance of his absence from chess with a
victory.
But Bill M. then got revenge with two wins over Pat Holland.

Nov 6, 2018:
The chess ladder has been updated for Nov 5th matches

Not as many matches. Lots of rain and several
regular players didn't show up. We expect them back next week.

The A tournament matches over. Will Atkinson
has to figure out who won or if there is a multi-player tie.

In A tournament matches, Will Atkinson beat Frank,
Wolfgang beat Bob, and Will Saxe beat Tom

Will had a slightly better board position against
Frank, allowing him to queen a pawn

Bob
tried to get Wolfgang confused by changing the opening. That
didn't work :D. Nor did a beautiful knight sacrifice :).

Will Saxe said he beat Tom by having multiple different
attacks that couldn't be countered.

Kevin Moss said his work
schedule has changed to 3-11 on Mondays, so won't be at the club until
work changes for the better.

Will Saxe also had two
victories against Pat Holland. Will went up 55 points and
moved into 15th place

Bill Penjuke had three
victories over Bruce and gained a bunch of points and moved from 20th
to 17th.

Bob beat Richard in the
tournament match. And almost beat him in a second game but ran out of
time.

Paul Shields was back! He said
it may be difficult for him to get back often. He had a strong win over
Wolfgang.

Cliff had a winning position
against Rich but missed an agressive winning move.

Charles
Murter played four games but got two draws that hurt his rating as
draws against lower rating players aren't good! So, think
twice
on offering or accepting a draw.

Tom Distillo and Van Woolley
ended up with a draw in their tournament match. All that was left on
the board were two kings :D!

Oct 25, 2018: The chess
ladder has been updated for Oct 22nd matches

Two
matches, between Will Atkinson and ??? has not been entered as I could
not read the hand writing. Clear, readable hand
writing is
important.

Bruce (1201) went up 112 points
with a upset victory over Wolfgang (1700). Way to go Bruce!

Tom
and Bob went head to head, with Tom winning. Tom almost fell into a
trap but at the last second moved his hand back and re-thought his move
:D.

Three
new players, Brock, Wayne Normam and Jason Cohen, who have showed up
only once and its been two months ago, are no longer shown on
the
ladder due to inactivity. Let's hope they show back up.

Charles
Murte had a string of victories, and us up 41 points and in 16th place.
Charles is at 1449, fixing to break into the 1500 level!

Oct 22, 2018: Chess
ladder updated for Oct 15 matches

More matches than last week

No upsets in the A bracket

In the B bracket, Rich Henry won over Cliff. It went to
three games.

Preston
Ladsen and Paul Shields were at the club. Preston played several
matches and that puts him back on the ladder. Welcome back!

Oct 12, 2018: Update on
Oct 8 matches

I didn't realize that Richard Neal is still undefeated in
the A bracket! My apologies. GO RICHARD!!!

Bruce
provided me with the B Bracket standings, and several matches were not
included in the ladder results. I've added the missing matches in as
Oct 8th matches, as I am uncertain on the actual date played. It will
not affect the ladder standings standings.

I just noticed that with
Wolfgang's victory, he has moved in to 4th place, just six points above
Richard!

Oct 8, 2018

Big
upset: Wolfgang beat Will Atkinson. This leaves
Frank as
the only undefeated player in the A bracket. If Will beats
Frank
in their upcoming match, we'll have lots of players with one loss tied
for 1st.

Jackie and Cliff played their B
tournament and it was a noisy match. We do ask them to be
quiet going forward.

We have several other matches
in the results, but not certain which ones are B bracket matches.

Cliff and Bill Mendenhall
exchanged matches.

Oct 1, 2018

Will Saxe got an upset by beating Bob

Frank And Will Atkinson are tied in the A Tournament

Cliff continues to
stay ahead in the B tournament.

Fewer matches are players are
taking longer to play their matches because of the tournament

Sept 24, 2018

Bob got another half an upset. Bob and Will
Atkinson drew there A bracket match that lasted until 10:30!

There
weren't any other upsets in the A bracket. There are five
undefeated players: Atkinson, Flanagan, Jackson, Brunke, and
Neal! Could we have a five way tie for club champion??

In the B Bracket, Rich Henry and Charles Murter swapped
victories.

By
my count, Rich Henry and Cliff Koehler are tied at 6 points in the B
bracket, but the official tally will come from Bruce, and I'll post it
as soon as available.

Sept 17, 2018

Bob
Flanagan got half an upset! He got a draw against Frank
Jackson!
Now if someone can help and knock off Will Atkinson.....

Paul Shields returned and got an upset win over Tom
Distillo.

Bill Mendenhall also upset Tom
and gained 9th place as a result!

Bill Mendenhall and Will Saxe
played two late matches, each winning one.

Sept 10, 2018

I
just updated the ladder for Sept 10th tournament matches. I
held
off in hopes of getting non tournament matches, but I'll get those
tonight instead.

Richard
Neal and Tom Distello when head to head in the tournament.
Both
have almost identical ladder rankings. Richard won, which put
him
up 13 points. And Tom dropped 13 points.

Bill
Killinger and Cliff Koehler, both close in rankings went head to head
in the B tournament. Bill won both and went up 33 points
while
Cliff went down 33.

Sept 3, 2018

The
chess ladder has been updated for today's matches. There were fewer
matches as it was Labor Day Monday, but many still showed up.

Wolfgang
Brunke and Ali Wilson showed back up! Wolfgang had a good
night
with victories over Will Saxe and Van Wooley. Ali lost two
hard
fought matches against Will Atkinson.

Bill Mendenhall won two matches
against Cliff

Richard
Neal and Bob Flanagan went head to head in a warm up for the club
tournament. The first game was a long hard fought game that
ended draw. The next two
games were split with a win each.

Charles Murter may be going for
the most improved! He has gained 141 points in the past three
months!!!

August 27, 2018
Highlights!

As always, lots of matches!

Charles Murter has a great day,
going up 31 points with two victories over Pat Holland.

Bill Mendenhall had a slightly
better day, going up 33 points!

Will Saxe and Bruce had bad
days :). It happens to all of us.

Frank
and Richard played 6 matches. Frank won five and Richard one.
But
Richard's rating hardly changed! That's the beauty of using a ranking
system like the USCF, where player rankings are taken into account.

Bob gained 8 points with a draw
against Will Atkinson, a lose to Bill Killinger and a win over Cliff.

August 20, 2018
Highlights!

36 matches! 20 players!

Richard Neal had a great day, moving up to #3 in the
rankings. Most of his victories came over Frank Jackson

We
added a new strong player. I hope I have the name right, "Druch". If
wrong, I'll correct ASAP. He gave Will Atkinson a very strong
battle. As such I placed him at 1700, competitive with Richard Neal and
Tom Distillo

Van and Bob both dropped matches (but had a good time!)

Charles Jay found a chess book he really liked and his
play was very strong in the openings! Watch out!

Kevin
Moss, one of our new players, played strong against Pat Holland, and
moved into 7th place. Van and Bob will be gunning for him
next
meeting!

August 13, 2018
Highlights!

Van
Woolley had a great night. Two wins over Bob Flanagan and a draw
against Will Atkinson. Van has gained 81 points in the past
three
months!

Richard Neal moved into 4th place! Richard has
gained 41 points in the past three months.

It
looks like a battle for 10th is going to happen between Cliff Koehler
and Will Saxe. Let's encourage them to play each other :).